Court Cases

The ACLU and our partners filed a lawsuit to stop an unlawful and discriminatory program by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that systematically targets, investigates, and intimidates naturalized U.S. citizens. The lawsuit was filed by OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, OCA-San Mateo, OCA-Sacramento, Common Cause, ACLU of Northern California, ACLU of Southern California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL), represented by the ACLU Voting Rights Project. Since August 2026, USCIS has run what it calls an “Unlawful Voter Initiative” aimed at tracking and investigating foreign-born citizens under the guise of voter eligibility checks. As a result, thousands of fully naturalized American citizens are subjected to improper investigations, door-to-door interrogations, and potential disenfranchisement based on flawed government data. The lawsuit aims to immediately stop the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) from continuing the Unlawful Voter Initiative. It also seeks to block the federal government from pressuring state election officials to withhold or discard valid ballots cast by individuals appearing on DHS’s unreliable lists. Additionally, the legal action demands a formal declaratory judgment establishing that the initiative violates the Civil Rights Act’s Uniform Standards Provision, the Privacy Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).            

The Disability Rights California (DRC) and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California sued Secretary of State Alex Padilla for failing to provide voter registration services for low-income Californians and Californians with disabilities.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California, Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Asian Law Caucus, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Los Angeles filed suit against Secretary of State Alex Padilla demanding increased access to language assistance for limited English proficient voters in California.

45,000 ballots were discarded – without notice – in California’s November 2016 election. This ACLU Foundation of Northern California lawsuit asks that future voters be given an opportunity to fix any signature match problems before their votes are thrown away.

The ACLU Foundation of Northern California filed suit against the DMV on behalf of several voting rights groups, demanding that voter registration opportunities meet legal requirements. 

All adult citizens have a right to vote in California except while they’re “imprisoned or on parole for conviction of a felony” or are mentally incompetent. But the CA Secretary of State has expanded this exclusion to include people who are on forms of community supervision created by the 2011 Criminal Justice Realignment Act. Over 58,000 Californians were wrongfully disenfranchised.

Throughout California, thousands of people are not allowed to vote because they are on parole for such statutory felonies as drug offenses and shoplifting. And while African-Americans constitute less than 7% of California’s adult population, in 2006 they were approximately 28% of all those disenfranchised as a result of being in prison or on parole for a felony. The ACLU Foundation of Northern California and the Impact Fund filed an amicus brief in the CA Court of Appeal in the case Legal Services for Prisoners with Children v. Bowen, outlining the breadth and implications of disproportionate disenfranchisement of people of color.